1. Field of the Invention
Devices, systems, and methods consistent with the invention relate to a method and apparatus for detecting cadmium with optical emission spectroscopy.
2. Description of the Related Art
As is widely known in the welding industry, the presence of cadmium in weld metal and welding electrodes is undesirable and many efforts have been implemented to greatly reduce or eliminate cadmium from weld metal. In this regard various entities which govern welding standards have instituted standards which require those who manufacture welding electrodes to certify the amount of cadmium present in their welding electrodes. For example, in Europe, an electrode manufacturer must certify that the use of their electrodes will not result in a weld metal having more than 100 parts per million (PPM) of cadmium.
This certification requires an electrode manufacturer to conduct significant amounts of testing to provide the appropriate certification. To date this testing has been done using inductively-coupled plasma testing with mass spectroscopy (ICP-MS) to test weld metal for the presence of cadmium. This process entails liquefying a test sample in an acid solution, and then testing the liquefied sample for the presence of various elements, including cadmium. Not only is this process highly toxic, but it is also very inefficient as it takes a few hours to conduct a test on a single sample. Because of the frequent need to certify welding electrodes, a need exists to accelerate the certification process.